I am one of the many that succumbed to the charms of the original Soldano SLO Pedal - released in 2022. That featured an expansive take on the legendary amp’s Overdrive Channel. It was / is an expansive version with 3-Band EQ plus Presence and Depth - and is exactly what I would want my Soldano to sound like. I never felt I missed the 2nd Normal Channel.
While Mike Soldano - in being the completist that he is - decided to deliver a SLO Plus pedal - which included the Normal Channel too. The...
This is very much the V3 Edition of the previously known Brent Mason Hot Wired Dual Overdrive/Distortion Pedal.
I’ve included the previous V2 version of that - so you can compare the control topologies :
Hot Wired V2 Controls - OVERDRIVE (Clarksdale Screamer) } Volume, Gain, Tone, Blend, Bass Boost : Fat / Normal / Fatter, Overdrive Footswitch; DISTORTION } Volume, Gain, Tone, Bass Boost : Fat / Normal / Fatter, Distortion Footswitch.
The new Re Wired adds an Order Switch, and makes ...
John Snyder seems to be consistently the hardest working man in this industry - and features on so many brand collaborations that sometimes it feels like he’s responsible for half of everything out there!
I’ve had this article in mind for a while, and over that period we’ve seen many a limited colourway editions for this pedal - where I’ve seen versions in green, and copper, silver, and white even I believe. I still feel that the original black take is a beautifully balanced creation - with...
These Hangman fx pedals have been doing the rounds somewhat of late - both Emily Hopkins and the Superfunawesomehappytime chaps received bumper care package of these fairly recently. And Intheblue’s Shane Diiorio and Mike Hermans have at least one apiece.
I do hope Guitar Pedal X can be more involved at the front of these sorts of brand launch events. I mustn’t grumble really - I do get included in many a release schedule, and plenty gets sent my way - but weirdly I still feel like I’m ...
I’ve just recently covered the phenomenal Tavysh HARM Multi-Gain pedal, and thought I should look at which similarly potent multi-gain pedals I had in the reference collection. In fact while doing the preliminary for this I realised I hadn’t yet acquired the All-Pedal Devil’s Triad Essentials - which landed around a fortnight ago. I had to go to Thomann, as there were none available in the UK at the time. I actually really like using Thomann - it takes a little longer to get packages from there...
When I first glimpsed the HARM pedal - it very much appeared to me to be the full-fat embodiment of my ’12 Degrees of Saturation’ Methodology. Now that I’ve been road-testing it for 3 weeks, I can absolutely vouch for its potency, versatility, and prowess - its range of coverage is extraordinary!
This is the one compact pedal that can pretty much cover all your gain needs. That’s not to say it wholly accurately 100% replicates every gain pedal, while it most definitely gets well beyond the...
So I said I would expand the scope of the 10 Pedal Challenge to Mini and Large Enclosure variants if the original was well received. And in indeed that seems to be the case - with several readers encouraging me in particular to do the Large Pedals Edition.
So of course I’ve done the 2 remaining categories - Mini and Large! The Large Pedals were pretty much all obvious choices really and that board largely suggested itself. It was the Mini Pedals version that took the most cogitation!
It...
So a follower on instagram challenged me to shrink my elaborate pedal-chain down to just 10 pedals. My original plan was just to fill a Pedaltrain Nano Max board with 10 compact pedals. But I then decided I should do a Mid-Size variation too, using the Pedaltrain Classic 2 board or thereabouts. I may do further Mini and Large Format editions as a follow-up - depending on how well this article is received!
This was a trickier exercise than you would imagine - as I needed to shuffle through ...
Another strong month for sure! A little dominated by Keeley Electronics, but some solid releases over the month - with a crazy flurry towards the end - to coincide with Europe’s largest Guitar Gear Show - Mannheim’s Guitar Summit. It seems evident now that Guitar Summit is an event I should really be at - and I will make a concerted effort to be their next year.
As it was I attended just one guitar gear event this month - EarthQuaker Devices Showcase at GuitarGuitar in Camden - where I got ...
Considering my well documented fallout with this brand - this is a slightly odd article for me. I might not get along with said brand name head honcho - but Jackson Audio still make some very decent pedals. They’re not necessarily always the best sounding overall, but in terms of their format innovation, build quality, feature set and usability they’re still a formidable force.
Pedal industry relationships are always complex - as they don’t just involve the builders, but distributors and ...